Quote Originally Posted by ReluctantSamurai View Post
Liddell Hart had a major impact on how WWII was fought on the ground in Europe. Considering he only saw a few weeks action during WWI, I'd say that qualifies him as a theorist. And a pretty good one, IMHO.
Now you have to be careful with Basil Liddell Hart because he claimed a lot of credit for the creation of the Britzkrieg/mobile warfare but there is debate as to whether he distorted things to give the impression he was deserving of that credit. Historians such as Shimon Naveh have suggested that he impossed upon the events and battles of the war his ideas and that he combined the maneuveres into a doctrine that didn't actually exist in reality and credited its authors as himself and Guderian. Guderian, however, made no mention of any influence in his theories from Liddell Hart in the original German editions of his memoirs but when they were being translated into English Liddell Hart sent a letter to Guderian asking him to add a paragraph that gave him credit for the German's tactical operational method in 1940 - which Guderian did - before that Guderian had never credited Liddell Hart with having any influence in his theories.